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Purple Flowering Trees in Maryland

By Nancy Wagner; Updated September 21, 2017

A variety of purple flowering trees make great choices for Maryland gardens and landscapes. Since most Maryland yards fall into hardy gardening zones 6-7, you can grow just about any flowering tree that can tolerate winter temperatures down to zero degrees. The following trees make great additions to any Maryland garden.

Ann Magnolia

Sporting tulip-like blossoms in shades of deep purple, this show-stopping magnolia tree blooms in late spring after the danger of frost has passed. After the flowers bloom, the tree develops dark green leaves that last until late fall. This tree requires little maintenance and since it grows to just 10 feet in width and height, it’s perfect for small gardens and areas where you need smaller trees in your landscaping.

Royal Empress Tree

This fast-growing tree offers beautiful large purple blossoms and eye-catching green leaves that grow up to a foot wide. With such wide leaves forming a thick shady canopy in the summer, the area under the tree offers an ideal location to grow shade-loving plants and flowers. Royal empress trees can grow to 50 feet high and about 40 feet wide and require little maintenance once they’re planted. They prefer full or partial sun for fastest growth. If you need to create a screened area of your garden, this tree makes a great choice.

Muskogee Crape Myrtle

For blooms that last all summer, the muskogee myrtle tree makes a great choice. This low maintenance tree features attractive and delicate lavender-colored blossoms and beautiful green foliage all summer long. Growing about five feet per year, these fast-growing trees reach 25 feet tall within just a few years, spreading to about eight feet wide. Plant a row of them in full to partial sun for a beautiful privacy hedge.

Japanese Lilac Tree

Growing more upright than the well-known lilac bushes, lilac trees can reach up to 30 feet tall. Sporting clusters of small powerfully-fragrant blossoms, many lilac trees produce pink or white blossoms, but a few purple cultivars do produce fragrant purple flowers. Since lilac trees tend to bloom after lilac bushes, consider planting them behind lilac bushes to give you several more weeks of blooms. Lilac trees thrive in full sun as long as they’re protected from strong wind.

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About the Author

Nancy Wagner is a marketing strategist and speaker who started writing in 1998. She writes business plans for startups and established companies and teaches marketing and promotional tactics at local workshops. Wagner's business and marketing articles have appeared in "Home Business Journal," "Nation’s Business," "Emerging Business" and "The Mortgage Press," among others. She holds a B.S. from Eastern Illinois University.